Chapter Text
Just a quarter of an hour after the last customer had left and Kojiro had began to clean up the kitchen with the rest of his staff, the sound of a glass door swinging open and subsequently being slammed shut sounded across the empty restaurant; sighing, he excused himself for a moment, planning on simply shoving a plate of pasta in Kaoru’s face and then claiming that he was busy (because he was , despite his best friend’s attempts to make it sound like an excuse) so he wouldn’t feel so guilty about letting them do most of the work.
As he walked through the corridor and into the main restaurant area, his eyes wandered immediately towards the left side of the counter, expecting to find a long limbed and pink haired figure already smirking up at him. Instead, Kaoru’s usual seat was empty, and once Kojiro actually looked around to figure out who other than him might have taken the liberty of walking in unannounced and after the place had closed, he noticed a small body curled up, sitting slumped against the wall closest to the entrance.
He distantly recognized the massive hoodie as Reki’s, but his suspicions were only confirmed once the boy let out an annoyed huff and lifted his head from where it was resting upon his knees to shove it back into the wall behind him. “Easy, kid,”- Kojiro started, not quite sure how to react, -“you’ll hurt yourself like that.”
He waited patiently for a moment or two, expecting the teenager to at least provide some semblance of an explanation, but Reki remained silent.
Rationally, Kojiro knew it was none of his business. Reki had probably gone through some sort of disagreement or fight, and had felt the need to calm down in a familiar place; still, he couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the kid. So, despite the voice in his head (which sounded suspiciously like Kaoru) telling him to just ignore such a blatant display of teen angst, he headed briskly back into the kitchen, vaguely telling his employees about the situation. They all nodded and none of them seemed actually bothered by Kojiro’s delegating, nevertheless, he couldn’t help but feel torn. Perhaps he should just give them a hand, and trust Reki to figure it out on his own?
He realized he’d been stuck inside his head and staring pointedly at a tile on the floor while frowning when a delicate hand landed on his shoulder and made him blink repeatedly. His sous chef, Hikari, grinned easily at him and once she could see he’d snapped out of his reverie, she spoke in that cheerful but efficient way of hers.
“Don’t worry about it, Nanjo-san! Tsukiko, Masashi and I have got literally everything under control, just let us clean up and don’t keep your boyfriend waiting any longer!”
And before he could correct her assumption of it being Kaoru who’d decided to visit (since regardless of his best efforts she still remained fully convinced in her idea that they were a couple, so he’d given up on rectifying that long ago), he was being shoved through the corridor once more. With an amused chuckle he gave in, and finally approached the dejected skater in his restaurant while also nodding in acknowledgement to a reassuring “We’ve got this, Boss!” yelled by Masashi from the other room, even though he knew the other man wouldn’t be able to see his gesture.
Then, he stepped forwards and crouched down a little until he was sure the boy would be aware of his presence, and when, once again, Reki didn’t attempt to start a conversation, Kojiro sighed and moved to sit beside him.
“Do you plan on sulking here all night, or do you wanna talk about it?”
The other didn’t flinch, but the way his shoulders stiffened wasn’t exactly subtle. “There’s nothing I wanna talk about.”
They both knew it was a lie, but right now Kojiro pitied the boy too much to call him out on it; “Alright then. You want something to eat? I think I have some leftover tiramisu in the fridge.”
Once more, his words were met with silence.
“Reki, if you’re having trouble dealing with something, I think you should try talking to Langa about it. I’m sure he’d be happy to help”- a loud scoff, then; “I can’t.”
Kojiro fought to keep his lips for slipping into a small smile, “Good, we’re finally getting somewhere,” he thought. Out loud, he asked, “You can’t, or you won’t?”
Stomping a foot onto the wooden floor they sat on and pouting fiercely, Reki spat out a quick “I don’t want to!”, and dejectedly the older man found himself thinking about how uncharacteristic of him it was to not have any desire to talk to his best friend. “Why not?” he prodded, despite Reki’s defensive posture.
When the stretching of silence presented itself again, Kojiro was just about to lightly scold the boy for wasting his time, but just an instant before he opened his mouth, a murmur was released from Reki’s lips.
“He’s gonna judge me. If I tell him, I mean. It’s also like— I don’t even know what I would tell him, you know? My sister said that if I was upset about something I should just figure it out by myself and then tell Langa but I have no idea how to do that…It’s— complicated. I guess.”
Alright, so the situation was messier than Kojiro had anticipated. “So…There’s something you want to understand, is what you’re saying?”
A nod was all he got as a response. “Well fuck,” - the man found himself thinking as Reki’s head fell into his hands so he could frustratedly pull at his hair, -“he probably came here cause I’m an adult and in his mind it’s like I have everything already figured out…”
They were both so deeply in thought and wrapped up in their minds they barely looked up when Sia La Luce’s staff waved goodbye as they walked out of the restaurant and wished them both a good night. However, their appearance did remind Kojiro that he really should begin to lock everything up, so he stood up and took a moment to gather himself before turning around and gazing dejectedly in Reki’s direction. Something sharp wriggled in his gut while he thought about how useless his input had been to the boy.
“Joe?”
Oh, so they were still talking about this. “Alight, I can deal with that,” was Kojiro’s mental answer to the calling of his name. He crouched down once more to meet Reki’s gaze and nodded for him to elaborate.
“Are you and Cherry together? Like— are you two a thing? ”
And despite it not being an unheard of supposition for the older man, he somehow had the feeling there was something behind the very tensely muttered question.
“It’s just. You two are very close, at least, you seem very close? I really don’t know, but when I’m looking for him at S, Cherry is always near you, and he let slip the other day he comes here very regularly, to just— hang out with you? So I guess I wondered about it…”
“But?”
Reki was now fidgeting with the laces hanging from the collar area of his hoodie; “I wanted a second opinion, or something, so I brought it up to Shadow and Miya.”
And while yes, Kojiro understood they’d all grown reasonably friendly with each other, sometimes those two could still make wounding remarks, Shadow mainly in an attempt at humor, while Miya simply didn’t know how else to react (in most situations, at least).
“Were they that surprised? About the thought of Cherry and I being an item?”
“No, no,”- Reki cut himself off with a brittle laugh, and then his eyes widened and shot up to meet Kojiro’s, -“they barely acknowledged that, they just said I was being a hypocrite because according to them it’s the same with me and Langa. If not worse.”
“And that…Bothers you?” he tried, unsure of where specifically the boy was going with this.
“Yes? I mean, it’s not hanging out with Langa himself that bothers me, but…People thinking we’re together. It’s weird.”
Finally, the older man felt like he had a concrete idea about what the issue at the bottom of the present situation was; still, he wanted to have it confirmed, he could be misunderstanding. “Why do you think it’s weird? ‘Cause you’re both guys?”
“Well, yeah. That shit is wrong, right? Unnatural and all that.”
Kojiro couldn’t help but feel slightly offended, despite knowing for sure that these were ideals which had been instilled in Reki, rather than actual opinions he’d developed himself. The main giveaway to the fact was how openly negative he was being about it, while usually, even if he disagreed with someone, the boy still did his best to not offend anyone and have a relatively mature conversation (for his standards, anyway).
“So you’re saying you thought of me and Kaoru as ‘unnatural’ people, kid?”; perhaps it was a bit of a low blow, but Reki clearly needed some encouragement to actually get so many years of internalized judgments off his chest.
“No! ‘Cause I know you two are normal. You’re fine. And even if you were…Gay, or something, it’s whatever. Like, you’re a talented enough skater for it to really not matter. I think.”
“Thanks,”- Kojiro started, determined to get to the bottom of the issue, “so, what I’m getting from this is that you’d be ok with me or Cherry not being straight, but it’s a problem if people think that about you and Langa?”
“…Yeah.”
“Why, then?”
“ Because! ”- Reki gesticulated almost wildly with his hands, almost as if he was trying to grapple at the words he needed to communicate what he thought, -“Langa is straight. I know that, right? And I know that people thinking he was gay would make him uncomfortable. So it can’t be something people think.”
“Reki, can I ask you a bit of a personal question?”
A grunt was all he received for his effort. Still, Kojiro persevered; “Do you think you might be into Langa?”
He’d expected the teenager to tense up, glare at him and cross his arms angrily, but what he witnessed instead was the (frankly, depressing) sight of Reki allowing his back to slide completely against the wall so he could to lay on his back and stare up at the vintage chandeliers littered under Sia La Luce’s ceiling. “Uh, maybe.”
“At least he can admit it to himself,” the man pondered.
“Actually, the more I think about this stuff, the more it’s like I’m falling in love with him? Which is stupid.”
Deciding to lie down as well and clumsily ruffle Reki’s hair, Kojiro shook his head before it met with the floor. Thank god he cleaned the place almost daily.
“I don’t think it’s stupid, and honestly? I don’t think you think it is, either. Maybe you’re just scared of how he might react?”
Huffing, Reki adjusted his headband, “You say that as if I’m gonna go and actually tell him anything about…This.”
“Won’t you?”
“I don’t wanna get bullied, or some shit like that.”
Kojiro supposed that was fair enough, but—
“Have you ever confessed to a girl before?”
“Sure. Once or twice, but it’s different , Joe! Don’t keep acting like having a thing for a guy and a girl isn’t like, completely different.”
“Well, it’s always felt pretty similar to me.”
Some cars could occasionally be heard outside, and despite the hour, the chatter of people didn’t seem to have died down since the warm afternoon which had just passed. As he waited for a response, Kojiro focused on those sounds.
“So you are gay! Or bi, or something. Right?”
“Yep!” he grinned, and vaguely realized this was probably the least stressful coming out experience he’d ever had. “And going off of what you’ve just been telling me, I think you might be as well.”
Immediately, Reki took in a shaky breath and began to scratch the back of his neck, embarrassed— Kojiro understood the feeling perfectly. “But keep this in mind, Reki, it’s not a race. Like you said, it’s complicated, but you’ll understand yourself soon enough,”- he tried to keep his voice as light and comforting as possible, -“the main thing is to not stress over what others might think about it, alright, kid? External opinions and all that don’t matter once you’re comfortable with who you are.”
“But— Langa!”
Kojiro chuckled, unable to hide the amusement from his face. “Yeah? What about him?”
“He can’t ever know. Even if I get into this whole gay thing, I don’t wanna like, scare him away…”
And, hypocrite that he is, the older man shrugged as if he considered confessing one’s feelings to a best friend to be the easiest task in the world. “I get that you’re concerned about that, but it’s fine, he won’t. It’s Langa we’re talking about, the guy adores you.”
Reki’s cheeks suddenly grew red and his hands quickly came up to cup the sides of his face, but Kojiro had noticed the blush anyway: he was also certain that if he were to tell Langa that his best friend adored him as well, he’d have the same reaction.
“Hey, Joe?” the boy said once the flush had began to disappear from his cheeks; “Yeah, what’s up?”
“Thank you. For, you know, helping me sort out my thoughts about this.”
Kojiro grinned in the other’s direction. “No problem, kid! I’m glad I could give you a hand.”
Reki’s smile was a reflection of his as he got up and pulled down the hem of his large hoodie, looking a little awkward but simultaneously like he was in a much better mood than when he’d entered the restaurant. “I think I should go now,”- he mumbled, -“my mom’s probably already done with dinner, and I planned on working on a board for a bit before S tonight, so. Yeah.”
Nodding along, Kojiro patted him on the shoulder and opened the door for Reki to pass through, and with a last, cheerful “Goodbye!”, the boy began skating down the street. “I hope they clear this up and get together soon.” he found himself thinking later on as he finally locked up Sia La Luce, two hours after schedule, and despite knowing he was referring to Langa and Reki, somewhere in the back of his mind he felt a part of him nudge at the thought, pushing him to perhaps consider that he too should begin to take his own advice.